Deputy minister claims Mendicino was “misunderstood” about police asking for Emergencies Act

https://tnc.news/2022/06/08/mendicino/

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino’s deputy minister says Mendicino was “misunderstood” when he repeatedly said law enforcement requested the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to clamp down on the Freedom Convoy.

“The advice we received was to invoke the Emergencies Act,” Mendicino told the special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency back in April.

Numerous policing leaders, from the Ottawa police chief to the RCMP commissioner, have denied this.

Public safety deputy minister Rob Stewart told the special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency, the parliamentary committee digging into Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act, that he believed what Mendicino “was trying to express was that law enforcement asked for the tools that were contained in the Emergencies Act.” ”

Mendicino referenced supposed law enforcement requests for the Emergencies Act in several statements to the media and in the House of Commons going back to February.